Ferguson-Brown
The Ferguson-Brown joint venture started selling tractors in 1936 based on Harry Ferguson's Ideas and built by the David Brown company Ltd of Huddersfield in England. History In about 1934, in partnership with engineer David Brown, Harry Ferguson formed the Ferguson-Brown Company and they produced the Ferguson-Brown Model A tractor. This was alight weight tractor with a Ferguson-designed hydraulic system. Ferguson surmised that the tractor hitch was the key to having a better plough and a simpler tractor attachment for it. He had spent 30 years developing his ideas.Ford & Fordson Tractors by Michael Williams, ISBN 978-0-7537-1447-8 The early models had Coventry Climax engines, with the latter ones having David Browns own engine fitted. The tractor was built with an alloy gear box and Bell housing body to keep weight down, as one of Fergusons ideas was that the tractor should be light. Some were build with stronger Alloy casings after beakages, but Ferguson would not swap to a cheaper (& stronger) steel casting to cure the problem. The Ferguson-Brown was expensive against the rival machines such as the Fordsons, as special implements were required to operate with it, rather than the old horse drawn ones that could be used with the other makes. Brown decided to re design the tractor to reduce costs, but did not consult with Ferguson who had gone to America, this caused a rift between them. Ferguson Ford Henry Ford had started building tractors in 1917 but these early machines did not have the hydraulic mounting for implements that were later to be a feature of the Ferguson TE20 series tractors, they just pulled with the draw bar which could if the plough struck an obstruction result in the tractor rearing up and over turning, in some cases killing the driver. Harry Ferguson started developing his three point hitch system to solve this problem and tried unsuccessfully to interest Henry Ford in partnering with him. In 1938 Ferguson went to see Henry Ford and demonstrate his new system to him. A plowing competetion was staged in Dearborn between a Ferguson-Brown Model A with 3 point plow that Ferguson had shipped to the US and A Fordson Model F pulling a trailing plow. The Ferguson-Brown outperformed the Fordson Model F. This Model A is the one now displayed in The Henry Ford Museum. In 1938 Harry Ferguson made a handshake agreement with Henry Ford to produce "Ferguson System" Ford tractors incorporating his idea.. Henry Ford then started building Ford tractors using the Ferguson linkage and jointly developed the Ford Model 9N, also known as the Ford-Ferguson tractor. Harry Ferguson set up a plant in western Detroit to supply the hydraulic systems for these tractors. The End Of Ferguson Brown This resulted in Ferguson terminating his agreement with David Brown, on his return to England on the grounds that Brown had broken the agreement, by design changes introduced whilst he was in America. So in 1939 David Brown introduced the VAK1 tractor. See David Brown for details Model Range and Preserved examples * Ferguson-Brown Model A was the only model built, with slight variations. Such as engine and the HD Casting. A total of 1350 + 1 were Built between 1934 and 1940.David Brown Tractors 1936-64, by Alan Earnshaw See Also * David Brown * Fordson * Massey Ferguson * Shows and Meets * List of Collections Reference Links *http://www.dbtc.co.uk/ - David Brown Tractor Club *http://www.fergusonclub.com/ - The Ferguson Tractor Club Category:Companies Category:Companies of the United Kingdom Category:Defunct companies of the United Kingdom Category:Tractor manufacturers Category:Tractor Category:Brands